


down into the depths I'll follow

by gaily-daily (passionateartist)



Series: won't you hold my heart [6]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Blood, Gen, Gore, lots of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21855397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/passionateartist/pseuds/gaily-daily
Summary: They'd gotten the call 20 minutes ago.
Series: won't you hold my heart [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557736
Comments: 8
Kudos: 208





	down into the depths I'll follow

**Author's Note:**

> look more Maddie pov because I'm predictable
> 
> I blanked out on the summary. I'm sorry guys I'll try better next time.

They'd gotten the call 20 minutes ago. The agent on the phone had given them the gist of the situation. Attack on the facility. Needing backup. Bring every weapon you have.

She'd been slightly surprised. The Guys in White kept to themselves. It would take a miracle for them to enlist the help of outside ghost hunters. But apparently their reinforcements were still an hour away and they were desperate enough to call Fenton Works. She's glad for the chance to prove herself as well as Jack. But she can't help but feel apprehensive. They hadn't divulged which ghost had attacked the headquarters or why. She would have assumed it was a swarm given the gravity of the situation, but the agent on the phone had said it was only the one. 

No matter. She holds her gun tight in her hands while Jack goes to open the door. He looks back at her, waiting for the go ahead. She nods. She's ready. 

They step into carnage. 

Maddie has seen violent ghosts before. She has seen raging spirits and vengeful poltergeists. Maddie is not a stranger to death. She studies it. She knows it. She knows death better than any person on Earth. But when Maddie steps through the GiW doors, she steps in oblivion. 

The stench reaches her first. She had prepared for it, expected it. But the smell of rot is something that no one ever truly gets used to. And when the first waft hits her she struggles not to puke. It's heavy and dense. A thick miasma coating the walls and seeping in through her nose. She coughs, holding a cloth close to her mouth. She breathes in, out. A few times before she's ready to wade through without the cloth's help.

As they near the reception desk they can make out a quiet whimpering underneath. Jack waves her over. He kneels down and Maddie looks over her shoulder at the man on the floor. He's propped up on the wall, legs spread apart. He's holding his guts in his hands, trying to push them back in. But there's no hole, no incision. The skin around the stomach is smooth. The intestines line up perfectly like a tube of flesh.

"He--he ph-phased them out!" The man gurgles. "He phased them out!"

Maddie jerks back horrified. 

"Jack…"

"The ambulance will be here soon. Don't worry." Jack squeezes the man's shoulder. Her husband tries to stand but the man tries to grab him. 

"Don't leave me! Please don't leave me!"

There is nothing they can do for the man. He'll die before help arrives. Maddie's hand tightens around her weapon. All they can do is can catch the ghost that did this.

They travel down the hallway, following the destruction. Most bodies have holes in them. In the chests or legs. The side of one woman's face had looked like it'd been cut in half. She approaches one for a better look. The damage had been from an ectoplasmic beam. 

"Mads," Jack says softly.

They both know what this means. For the majority of ghosts, ecto beams are only strong enough to create burn marks. 

Maddie looks at the cavern where one man's heart should be. It's a dark hole of flesh and bone that sinks into the chest. Only an extremely powerful specter could melt through the skin like this. 

Theories race through her head. The one she settles on is that the GiW, in all their arrogance, had managed to capture a dark spirit. But they could not keep it contained. And now they were paying for it.

She clenches her teeth and presses on. She was Maddie Fenton. Seasoned ghost hunter. And she was not afraid.

The worst ones were the people still left alive. Calling out for help in the darkness. They couldn't afford to stop for them. And she doubts they would be able to help anyway. Most were beyond saving. The only thing they were capable of doing was breathing in raggard, wet breaths. 

This wasn't a normal attack. Maddie crouches around a corner and signals to Jack that it's safe. Ghosts could be violent. But they were not needlessly cruel. This, whatever it was, was personal. If the GiW truly had captured a dangerous ghost then none of this made sense. It would have fought to escape and left the first chance it got. It would be out in the city right now causing havoc and looking for a portal home. But the carnage moves _inwards_. Not out. The deeper they explore the worse it gets. 

Jack stops. He looks towards the end of the hallway and Maddie follows his gaze. 

The containment room.

After clearing the area, they move in. It's empty save for one body one the floor. Sweat covers the man's head. He's trying to get up on a chair.

"Jack!"

Maddie helps the man up as her husband rushes over.

"What happened here?"

"We...we never saw it coming…" He pants. "Like lightening…"

"Can you tell us about the ghost that attacked you?"

The man's gasps grow louder.

"It--it was…" he coughs violently. Blood covers his chin. 

"Anything could help us, anything at all." She presses close.

The man reaches out and she takes his hand. His fingers have barely any strength to hold on with.

"W--wisc--"

Maddie squeezes his hand. Come on! Give her something! Anything! She has to know how to defeat this monster!

"Wis...consin…"

The last word is a whisper that takes the last of the man's strength. His hand goes limp in hers.  
She lets go to stand up beside her husband. Jack is tense beside her. 

From the moment she had laid eyes on him, Maddie knew the Wisconsin Ghost was different. He had seemed more intelligent. More other. Both him and the Ghost Boy had always eluded her theories on everything ghosts were. Everything they were made up of. They never followed the rules of the afterlife. Ruining every hypothesis she'd ever created and had to start from scratch. The Wisconsin Ghost hadn't been spotted in years. She'd thought that had been a good thing. But now she realizes it wasn't.

A hollow scream echoes through the halls. It sends a haunting chill through Maddie's heart. She looks at Jack and he back at her. She nods.

They hurry out of the room and towards the sound. They follow the sound of begging and crying to the other end of the hall. They sneak inside a door labeled Observation and look around. There is a large glass window that opens up into a much larger room. Judging by the instruments and the table, Maddie knows this is the operation room. 

Down below, outside the glass the Wisconsin Ghost holds a cowering doctor by the neck. But that isn't what draws her attention first. On the table, chest split open, is the ghost boy Danny Phantom. She's always wanted to see inside him. What his core looked like. How he functioned.

How, and most importantly when, had the Guys in White captured him? It figured that they would keep that little secret to themselves. 

On the other side of the room the Wisconsin Ghost sinks his fangs into the doctor's throat and rips it out with all the grace of a vicious animal. The ghost spits it out and lets the woman fall from his grip. 

Maddie pays the now dead woman no mind. She is fixated on the curved horns resting atop the Wisconsin Ghost's head. Ghosts were supposed to top out once they reached the limit of their powers. Neither should they be able to change their bodily appearance. Once they are formed that appearance is theirs forever. But the Wisconsin Ghost had only grown.

He turns towards the last doctor in the room. His fangs glisten with his smile.

It was unnatural. Against the order of things. It shouldn't be _possible_. 

"Maddie." Jack whispers. Maddie blinks, coming out of her train of thoughts. "What's the plan?"

Right. A plan. They couldn't just go in there guns blazing. This ghost was too smart for that. They needed stealth. 

The doctor blubbers for his life as a clawed glove wraps around him. The Wisconsin Ghost drags the man over to the table and shoves him forward.

"Fix him and I may just let you go."

The man nods furiously. Pleading for the ghost not to kill him over and over. 

Maddie gestures to Jack. He goes high while Maddie goes low. Jack nods and takes a position. Maddie slips out if the observation room and down below. She'll signal Jack when they're ready for the attack.

When she gets to the skewed door of the operation room and presses her back against the wall to ready herself. She risks a peek inside.

The doctor struggles with shaking hands as he stitches Phantom back up. Then, carefully, he removes the tube covering his mouth. 

"Please, please just let me go. I was only doing my job."

The Wisconsin Ghost smiles. "Don't worry. I'll let you go."

She contemplates foregoing a surprise attack to save the doctor's life when they both disappear in a pink swirl. Shit.

Maddie takes the chance to jump into the room. She needs to find a better spot to ambush him in. She only has seconds to decide.

A loud, muffled scream echoes above her accompanied by a loud thump. Maddie looks at the ceiling above as it shakes from the impact.  
She needs to hide. _Now/em >. _

__

Maddie dives behind a cabinet just as the Wisconsin Ghost teleports back in. She looks up at Jack. He nods. She's about to give him the signal when something gives her pause. 

__

She watches, with shock, as the Wisconsin Ghost reaches out to cup Phantom's cheek. The dark face that had held so much hatred now holds only sorrow and something else she dare not name. Ghosts could only hold negative emotion. And if they felt love, it was only a form of distorted desire. But the powerful ghost before her leans down and picks Phantom up in his arms to cradle him against his chest. 

__

"I'm here now." He whispers, even though Phantom obviously cannot hear him. "It's alright."

__

Ghosts don't look out for each other in this way. They do not risk their own safety. And they do not care for one another. 

__

Maddie had seen ghosts team up and ally themselves before. But what confused her was that she'd seen the Wisconsin Ghost fight Danny Phantom many times. She knew they were enemies. When had they become allies?

__

"I've got you."

__

The words spoke of something much more than a simple alliance. 

__

The ghost pulls back, readying himself for flight. Maddie steels herself. Those questions did not matter now. What mattered was the massacre that had just taken place. And they needed to stop him.  
She signals Jack. 

__

He takes a shot, distracting the ghost as Maddie moves in to throw a portable ghost shield. She activates it quickly and it rises around the two ghosts. She lets out a relieved breath. That had been easy. Too easy.

__

The Wisconsin Ghost takes in the shield around him, frowning deeply at it. Maddie steadies her gun at his head and walks towards him.

__

"Madeline." He greets her sans smile. "I didn't expect the GiW to call you in."

__

"That makes two of us."

__

A moment later Jack bursts into the room. He trains his gun on the other side of the Wisconsin Ghost. 

__

"Forgive me if seem rude but I'm in a bit of a rush here so if you'd be so kind to step aside."

__

"You're not going anywhere! Now put Phantom down!"

__

There's still blood stained on his gloves and suit. He narrows his eyes at her, a low growl in his throat.

__

"Now why would I do that?"

__

"Figured I'd give you the chance not to simply drop him on the floor when I shoot you."

__

Behind the Wisconsin Ghost Jack swivels his gaze towards her. "Mads they said to take him in alive."

__

She shakes her head. "I don't care! He's proven himself too dangerous to let live! I won't be responsible for any more deaths!"

__

The GiW be damned! As Maddie looks into the red of the Wisconsin Ghost's eyes she knows she needs to end him here and now. He will only kill more if he escapes. The Guys in White were in over their heads (as always). They wouldn't be able to keep a ghost of this nature under wraps. 

__

Still keeping his gun up, Jack inches around toward her. "Maddie! Mads listen to me! We've got him! It's over!"

__

"It's not! Not until I destroy him!"

__

Jack places a hand on her gun. "We're scientists first and hunters second." He says gently. "Do you know what that means?"

__

Maddie spares a glance at her husband. Then, reluctantly, she lowers her gun.

__

"We ask questions first and shoot later."

__

Jack smiles. "That's right."

__

She opens her mouth to say something else when she finally realizes the temperature of the room has increased dramatically. Maddie looks back at the ghost dome. Static races up through the Wisconsin Ghost in pink waves. He holds a hand up over his head and smirks at them from under the shield. 

__

"I'd get down if I were you." He says.

__

"Wha--?"

__

He clenches his fist and a bolt of red lightening shatters the dome. The flash blinds the hunters momentarily. Maddie cries out, rubbing at her eyes. She tries to shake the white at the edges of her vision away.

__

"No! No, where is he??"

__

She runs toward the broken ghost shield. The last of the red electricity runs through its smoking parts. It's destroyed.

__

"No!" She kicks it across the room. "I had him! We _had_ him!" 

__

Fury rises within her. She should have known. She should have foreseen the Wisconsin Ghost had possessed the ability to disable a shield! He was certainly powerful enough to!

__

"Mads, it'll be okay. We'll get him some other time. We can--"

__

Maddie holds a hand up, silencing her husband. She thinks of the many, many things she wants to say. But she settles on silence and a warning look.  
Jack is quiet as he follows her out.

__

**Author's Note:**

> so I've been obsessed with Vlad with horns ever since I read TheLonesomeWriter's fic 'be together but alone' and now I can never go back. Just... just let me have this I beg you.
> 
> Also GO READ ALL IF THELONESOMEWRITER'S FICS RIGHT NOW THEY ARE A BLESSING!!!!


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